Organizational leaders, whether in business, politics, or non-profit, often miss some important things when managing their organization. In almost all cases, it’s because they 1) don’t have a good “30,000 foot view” of what is going on and 2) a diverse group of advisors is not assembled and consulted.

Take Vladimir Putin for instance. He’s making a big mess. I originally gave him much more credit as a leader than he deserved. But he chose to surround himself with “Yes Men” and the result has been catastrophic. If you have any doubt of this, I encourage you to watch Putin Scores 8 Goals.

I made a “Stupid List” for the company I worked for that detailed the top 10 things the company did not address. It was mostly in my head, but it helped me keep my sanity. One of the things on my list was that we never really sat down and addressed the big problems facing our company. It was like the company was running on automatic and continued patching an archaic operating system.

This all changed when one of the managers got the idea to hire a consulting firm. The first thing the firm did was sit us all down and have us diagnose our own problems and then implement solutions.

We needed an outsider to tell us all to sit down and talk about how we can improve. Wow. That was a big miss.

Hiring consultants is a great idea for any business. It’s like hiring a marriage counselor or a therapist. Outside perspectives are great. They can solve big obvious problems that can’t be seen by insiders.

In our case, the obvious issue was that we didn’t sit down together and discuss what was wrong with the business.

And that’s exactly what we should be doing with the pandemic – sitting down and thinking about the things we can improve on.

With this in mind, I have made my own list for the pandemic:

Top 12 List of Stupid Things We did During the Pandemic:

For our gym, scheduled workouts have been a positive development during the pandemic.

Since the early days of the pandemic, Fay’s Fitness changed to a scheduled model of exercising to limit the number of people in the gym. Now, everyone that exercises here has timeslots for their workouts.

There have been big advantages to this:

Want to see what’s in store for your future?

You don’t need a crystal ball. Just extrapolate.

By looking at past and current trends, you can estimate what’s in store for your future.

There is a tool in Microsoft Excel to extrapolate data on a chart. Put in a few data points and it will tell you what the next number will likely be.

For instance, if you weighed 150 pounds when you were 20, 160 at 30 and 170 pounds at 40, you could estimate, based on the trend, that you will weigh 180 pounds at 50.

Going on week 3 of my COVID-19 experience and I’m feeling relatively normal.

Like 80% of those that were infected with the COVID-19 , my symptoms were mild.

• Day 1: A dry cough was my first symptom. Otherwise felt fine.
• Day 2: Woke up in the AM with a good headache and fatigue.
• Day 3: Headache and more fatigue. Area around my belly fat was sensitive to touch – similar to when I had shingles. Lasted a few days.
• Day 4: Loss of smell added to the fatigue. Headache subsided. This was my worst day.
• Day 5: Sinuses started filling up.
• Day 6: Very drippy and sneezy, but not so exhausted.
• Day 7 through Day 9: Actually able to function. Full sinus cavity. Get tired easy.
• Day 10: Off quarantine. Sense of smell returned. Occasional cough and sinus fills overnight. Back to my daily duties – only with a longer afternoon nap.

As our governments struggle to apply one-size-fits-all programs, many people are taking a more individualized approach. Much of someone’s approach is or at least should be based on their risk. The young, healthy Spring Breakers in Miami Beach are an example of one extreme as they shed their masks and inhibitions. At the other end, there are those that are elderly with co-morbidities locked in their homes and wearing masks out to get their mail.